Finding family
by XXinsidemymindXX
Summary: Gildarts wants nothing more than to bond with his new-found, independent daughter. He realises that the one thing they both have in common is her mother so he decides to tell her the story on how he met her mother. Rated T for minor language. A Gildarts/Cornelia Fic ON HIATUS/ABANDONED
1. Chapter 1

A/N: Firstly: even though I wish upon the stars that I will someday own Fairy Tail it still has not happened, so none of this is mine and I don't make any profit from writing this, other than the joy of sharing what's in my head with you, my dear viewers : ).

Secondly: a huge thanks to The Evil Stick for proof reading this chapter! 'It' rocks!

Thirdly: I hope you enjoy this little idea of mine, I have been wanting to write a father/daugther bonding fic abot Cana and Gildarts for a while and I believe her finally telling him he is her father to be one of the more emotionally charged moments in the entire anime, and that is saying a lot...

Once again, hope you all enjoy and please Read and Review!

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Anno 791

"Leave me alone, you are always so clingy"

"Dad…" Gildarts filled in. However, he only received a raised eyebrow and an un-appreciating countenance in response.

"Leave me alone, you are always so clingy,_dad_..." He tried again but still no reaction and he sighed to himself. Ever since she told him that he was her father he had tried to reach out to his beautiful, strong, independent daughter. However, the more he tried, the more he seemed to chase her away. He, the great Gildarts Clive just could not figure them out, women; he would never ever understand them. Oh, he was a master at getting them into his bed, and while in there he had yet to hear one of them complain but other than that…

Not that he usually cared; they were merely something he liked to indulge himself in to pass time between quests. He usually never looked back after leaving a warm bed and a curvaceous body behind and he generally liked his lifestyle. He had not actually cared for a single one of the many women that had crossed his path since his marriage with the most beautiful woman on the planet had ended, mostly due to his own inability to commit to anything. Cana however, was different. She could in no way be cluttered in between all his countless conquests and he had not a single clue how he should behave to be a good father and role-model for her. He could however just not give up, he had promised her to never feel lonely again and damn it, it was a promise he intended to keep.

He sighed to himself once again and resumed his futile attempt at charming his daughter, the dark-haired, beautiful card mage, by lifting her up in his arms, promptly ignoring her determined wriggling and all the foul words that seemed to fall of her lips as easily as another breathed air and hugged her tightly: if she did not approve of any of his attempt to bond with her, then he just had to become more persistent:

"I just love my beautiful daughter so much I can't help it." He proudly boasted to everyone within earshot before being shut up by a slap on his right cheek by said beautiful and currently seriously pissed of daughter.

"Now you listen to me old geezer, if you ever pick me up without my consent again I will make you regret ever meeting my mother." She threatened with darkness glimmering in her eyes but that did not stop Gildarts: he swirled her around and loudly proclaimed his love for his daughter once more before finally obeying Cana's increasingly horrifying threats and curses to put her down in that very second.

When he finally obeyed and put a very indignant daughter down on the floor he became still for a second before proceeding to hug her while quietly telling her:

"I am sorry my sweet daughter, I just can't help myself, you are so beautiful and you look so much like your mother."

At those words Cana suddenly calmed down. Dark eyes that only moments earlier had been tensed up in furious, thin lines softened and she looked away from her father, seemingly lost in her own thoughts. She had only been a little girl when her mother passed away twelve years ago and she set out to find her father, the renowned mage Gildarts Clive, and even though she hated to admit it, her memories had started to fade long ago…

When Gildarts noted her sudden change in demeanour he smiled warmly and softly asked:

"Cana, would you like to come over to my place tonight and I will tell you how your mother and I met?"


	2. Chapter 2

Chapter 2

When Cana accepted the offer to come over to her father's for dinner that night he gave her one last, non-consented hug and left the guild hall in a happy, excited mood. Already in deep thoughts of what he would cook for her, he, to the rest of his guild mates shock and dismay, failed to notice that he made a new hole in the brick wall as he exited the building.

On the way back he dropped into the local grocery store and picked up a few things to top up the cabinets. Well, in all honesty it was maybe not so much a topping up as a complete restocking of his food inventory. He was, after all, not home very often and when he was he usually opted for Mirajane's divine cooking rather than having to organise and cook for himself.

Despite the lack of available components in his kitchen Gildarts was actually not a bad cook, during his younger years he had been provided with many opportunities to pick up a tip or two and when Cana walked up the pathway to his cabin an inviting scent of roast duck and a garlicky gravy originating from the small house immediately caught her attention. She had not been sure what to expect and was positively surprised. Even though she had been in the same guild as her father for many years there was so much she did not know about him and she found, despite her best intentions, that she was getting excited about this given opportunity to get to know him better.

After being invited to sit down by the small table an awkward silence settled in the room. After a few minutes of quietly eating and staring down into their plates, not knowing how to open the conversation, Gildarts decided it was time to hold up his end of the bargain. He took a deep sip of his beer and began to tell the tale of how he met, and fell in love with Cana's mother.

* * *

Anno 762

"Wake up you disgusting pisshead." A female voice barked at him furiously while shaking him violently into consciousness.

The young, brown-haired, handsome mage in front of her groaned and pushed her away from him without even opening his eyes. His head pounded painfully and the ringing in his ears intensified from her annoying screaming. He desired nothing more than to tend to his hangover in a quieter environment and fall asleep again in order to wake up much later, preferably next to a beautiful woman and a succulent plate of fried bacon and beans.

He had no such luck.

The next thing he became aware of that he was suddenly soaked from top to bottom in filthy, stinking water. The vicious woman had poured a frickin bucket of cold rainwater over his poor, suffering body. What kind of nasty woman was she? Really, who does that?

Out of equal amounts irritation and curiosity Gildarts opened a pair of bloodshot, swollen eyes and found himself staring into the most beautiful pair of warm, glittering eyes he had ever seen. He blinked twice, not quite trusting his brain not to play a trick on him but when the beautiful woman still had not disappeared the third time he opened them he decided it must be true: the vicious woman with the sharp tongue who had roughly woken him up from his alcohol-induced nap by pouring a bucket of water on him and the beautiful creature in front of him had to be the same.

Further evidence was provided to him in the form of the intimidating glare he received from her and the empty bucket in her hands.

Now, wasn't that a cruel twist of fate?'

"Um… Hi?" He tried while smiling disarmingly and turned on his charm: self-preservation compelling him to be careful with this woman and try to win her over as quickly as possible; she seemed ready to bite his head off for some unknown reason.

It didn't work.

Instead she threw a net in his face.

"Since the honourable mister I have in front of me sometime during his pisshead partying last night decided that my sty was a fitting place to sleep and in the process left the gate open for my pigs to get out. _Someone_ will of course do the honourable thing and catch them again." She explained with a voice dripping of sarcasm and irritation upon seeing the confusion in the young man's eyes when he grabbed the net in the air to avoid getting entangled.

Gildarts eyes widened slightly at her words, he quickly, and hopefully discretely, looked around to observe his surroundings. She had been right: he was indeed in a pigsty, laying curled up in a little ball for warmth he had fallen asleep in the middle of the hay and pig shit in a small, old ramshackle shed.

Fantastic, he grumbled to himself, still tormented by a gruesome head ache and a slight nausea he promised himself to never drink again.

Not one of his proudest moments he had to admit and when he ransacked his memories from last night to try to figure out how he could have ended up in such an undignified position a faint memory popped up of him sharing a pint or two with the guards of the duke he had finished a quest for yesterday. It had been a simple routine mission to take out a gang of robbers that were aiming for the duke's abundant wealth and afterwards he had been invited to join them when they celebrated the victory, and while the pints had kept coming the hours had disappeared like a puddle of spilled milk on a hot day.

At some point through the night, a refreshing walk to clear a head that had grown fuzzier by the hour had seemed like a splendid idea but walking aimlessly around the small town had somehow led him astray into the crappier quarters and when the booze had taken a final hold of him he had stopped in front of the first and best place and decided it was good enough for him to sleep in.

Which led him to his current predicament: he could tell that the woman in front of him did not had much money, she was wearing an old, worn, unmodern dress and rags that she had wrapped around her feet in protection of the chill in the dawning air as a substitute for shoes. The previously mentioned and currently misplaced pigs were probably her only way to make a living. But even so:

She was magnificent: she held herself like a queen and the dignified disgust he could read in her eyes could very well match up to any royalty he had ever had the misfortune to encounter.

"So?"

The sharp voice pulled him out of his deep thoughts and startled him for a moment before he realised that she was still waiting for him, rather impatiently one might add, to respond to her earlier request of him going pig hunting.

Absolutely fucking fantastic.

He sighed to himself, well, there was no one around to blame but himself so he did not had much choice but succumb to her heartless commands, it was in any case his fault that her pigs were loose. Albeit setting free a poor woman's only livelihood not being his original intention it was the end result of his nightly escapades and now he had to set right what he had done wrong. He was, after all, a man with honour.

* * *

The rest of that day had given birth to all sorts of embarrassing encounters with the stinking mud during the young mage's many attempts to catch the pigs with his bare hands. His magic did not do much good in these sorts of situations: he could not create a trap for them out of the environment without tearing the whole town down in the process and any attempt to use his magic directly against them would only result in a few hundred miniature pigs to catch, as opposite to the original, far fewer, five bigger pigs.

The young woman had been observing Gildarts during his less dignified attempts to hurdle the pigs together and she could not stop herself from giggling when he made a particularly disastrous attempt to throw himself on top of the nearest pig to catch it. Despite his good intention the pig was faster and he ended up face first into the muddy street when the pig easily avoided him by jumping to the side. The eluding swine then proceeded to confidently closing in on him again when he was down on his stomach to have a tantalizingly nibble at his amber-brown hair. The whole scene was so pathetic and comical that she could not help taking pity on the struggling man.

Maybe he was not so bad after all? He was obviously suffering from a gruesome hangover judging from his pale, sweaty face and the slightly wobbly movements. Regardless, he had not uttered a word of complaint so far and when the pigs were finally back in their stalls she took mercy on the dirty, pitiful figure by inviting him into her home for a clean-up and some lunch.

"I'm Cornelia by the way." The beautiful woman smiled when she let him into her small home and Gildarts almost walked into the wall instead of through the door, that smile…


	3. Chapter 3

Chapter three is here!

In which Gildarts meets his first real challenge and defeat: how will his ego cope with such devastating development?

I hope you like it, feedback is always welcome so please let me know what you think:).

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Chapter 3

Cana, completely engulfed in the story depicted by her father, almost choked on her roasted potato when he explained the embarrassing and hilarious pig story. It would normally had been hard to picture Gildarts in any kind of humiliating situation but he explained the scene so vividly and with such a wide ray of emotions added, from how foul the stinking mud had smelled, to how slippery the pigs had been. She noticed how he forgot to breathe for a second when he mentioned the first time he had eyes on her mother's smile and that made Cana feel like she was right there, standing next to the young couple and going through everything they did 29 years ago.

Gildarts took a break in his story to clean up the empty plates and bring out the cake he had prepared for dessert. Once again Cana found herself surprised and amazed at what her father could accomplish in the kitchen, it smelled divine!

Once they had settled again, this time with a big piece of chocolate cake and a cup of coffee in front of them, Gildarts resumed his story of how he came to fall in love with Cornelia, the pig woman:

* * *

It took another 6 months before he saw her again.

He had told himself over and over again that he had no interest in her. He had worked very hard to ignore every urge, every thought and every idea to go back to that town and look for her. He took a longer mission to distract himself but when it finished and he returned to the guild he had still not been able to forget that enchanting, but oh so rare smile. He found himself fantasising about that particular smile and imagining scenarios in which he could lure it out again. He wondered if the reason he was so enchanted by it was because he had only seen it once, when she forgot to have her guard up during her short presentation of herself.

He would probably never have fully admitted to himself that he was interested in the hauntingly beautiful, pig woman Cornelia if it was not for an unusually wet night spent at the guild in the company of Master Makarov, Macao and Wakaba. The four of them had celebrated Macao's successful engagement and now pending wedding and after a few drinks a certain dark-haired beauty had been mentioned in passing when Fairy Tail's most powerful mage was asked about his latest missions.

What Gildarts had not accounted for was the interest the other three seemed to have in his private life. He had been forced to spend the rest of the evening fighting of their prying questions and loud proclamations that he had to go back for her. Right now!

Later that night, when he had finally walked home to his house to crash he still could not get her out of his mind, and it frustrated him to no end. He made himself a cup of strong black coffee to clear his mind and sat down by his kitchen table. Leaning back into the chair he ran his fingers through his hair as he contemplated his situation. What should he do? He could no longer deny his interest, but should he really act on it? She had not seemed very impressed by him the last time they met and that was six months ago. She could be married and have five kids for all he knew.

His mouth dried up and he started cold sweating at the mere thought of meeting her again. Now that he had finally admitted to himself that he wanted to meet the stunning woman with the hauntingly beautiful eyes and the rare smile again he realised he was nervous and that thought actually made him chuckle, when was the last time he had been nervous about something? He could honestly not remember. But the feelings invoked, unfamiliar and enticing, the thought of meeting her again only made him more determined. In a way it was good that he had let his tongue slip in a moment of weakness. The support his friends had provided him with and their pressing demands for him deal with his feelings had finally allowed him to make up his mind…

"Um… Hi?" O hell, Gildarts cursed himself, was that really the best he could come up with?

"You? What are you doing here?" Cornelia asked cautiously. During their lunch together all those months ago he had told her that he belonged to a mage's guild located in Magnolia, which was a fair distance from her hometown. She had not expected to ever see him again and even less so for him to be standing on her front porch, leaning his ridiculously sexy body against the reeling and smiling sheepishly as if to excuse his intrusion.

"I… uh… was just in the neighbourhood. Finished another quest for the duke I helped last time and I… eh… wondered if you would like to get a cup of coffee or something like that?"

"You are kidding right? I have no time for this, now leave!" Cornelia almost yelled at him with flustered cheeks before slamming the door shut.

On the dilapidated porch a perplexed and confused mage was left standing indecisively. What the hell did just happen? He knew she was not particularly fond of him but her reaction seemed entirely exaggerated. Not sure what he should do next he concluded that a strategic retreat would be the best course of action at that point. He left the porch to find a tavern in which he could sit down with a pint of beer to analyse the situation and figure out what went wrong.

What he did not know was that he was being observed.

When she had slammed the door in his face she turned around to lean against the rough surface and slid down into a sitting position. Her heart beat so hard that it felt like it was trying to crush her chest and her cheeks burned flamingly red.

What was he doing here? She had never expected to see him again and when he had turned up on her run down porch with that sheepish grin and that hauntingly sexy body of his it had caught her completely of guard, and Cornelia was not a woman that liked to be taken off guard. Early, painful, lessons in life had taught her to never trust anyone and always be wary of others actions and intentions.

After few seconds of collecting herself again she took one deep breath, stood up and lifted the thin curtain covering the window next to the door, just enough so that she could peek out through it without being caught. She found him still standing on the porch looking very confused for a few moments before apparently making up his mind and leaving the property. She let out a small breath she had not realised she had held and turned around. That would be the last she heard from Gildarts Clive she told herself. Now maybe she could finally get him and those confusing images of his cute smile and gorgeous body out of her head…

"Mommy? What are you doing?"


	4. Chapter 4

**Soo… A short one today, but at least it is something right? This chapter will give some background to Cornelia's thoughts and behaviour exhibited in the last chapter.**

**I would like to extend a huge thank you to those who have followed, favourite and reviewed this little story! You guys are the best!**

**And I also beg you to have patience with me for posting a non-proofread chapter. All faults which most definitely exist in this fic are mine and mine alone. No one else can take credit for them!**

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**Chapter 4**

"Oh, hi sweetie, mommy wasn't doing anything special. Hungry? I made some honey biscuits earlier today that I think a certain sugar addict will like." Cornelia tempted while leaving her scouting position and turning around to greet the toddler, with the desired effect soon evident in the toddler's eyes. They lit up at the thought of the rare sweets and he soon forgot about his carer's peculiar behaviour…

Cornelia could not resist stealing one last peek out towards the street which had, just moments ago, been filled with his charismatic presence but to no avail. He had left and that was the end of that. She shook her head and mentally scolded herself for being silly. The last thing she had planned was to get involved in yet another charming wayward mage who would leave her heartbroken and without anything but the clothes she wore.

She lifted up the dark-haired little boy who were tugging her skirt for attention and carried him to the kitchen where she gave him the promised bribe for letting the subject of her weird behaviour drop. She managed to force all thoughts of the young mage out of her mind for the rest of that day and returned to the never-ending chores that came with having a house and a three-year old boy. During the days it was not hard to forget about herself. She was so occupied with taking care of him at the same time as struggling to make enough money to put food on their table that she never really had time to reflect of how different her life could have been…

It was at night she really struggled.

When she had made them dinner and put him to sleep she would usually end up sitting by the empty kitchen table with a cup of tea staring into the darkness outside. It was the one moment she allowed herself to feel.

Loneliness, bitterness, regret, anger.

She had been so very young when it happened the first time. The first time she had crossed paths with a fortune-seeking, charming mage who had swept her of her feet and promised her the world. Only to leave the next day with the little inheritance she had from her parents in his pockets together with her virtue and innocence.

And then her younger sister had fallen for another of them. He had seduced the poor child, not even turned 15, and stayed with her until he had his fill. Then he left without a word and only a couple of weeks later she found out she was bearing a child.

If Cornelia would ever meet the mage she would have many things to say to him. Who ruined her innocent beautiful little sister and left her empty-handed.

But those times where long gone. When her sister had had the baby Cornelia had offered to take care of him as if he was her own, her sister was way too young to take on the responsibility and so it fell on Cornelia's shoulder to care for them both. Which she did without complaining, she loved her sister more than anything and little Kieran, well it was impossible not to fall for him, with that un-brushed dark mane of his and the family trait of melted chocolate-coloured eyes.

Her little sister had grown up quickly too, far too quickly for Cornelia's taste but she knew it had been necessary, even though times were hard and job's was a rare commodity she had managed to get a part-time job as a barmaid at a local bar. It was not much, but it helped the three of them to make ends meet. They still lived together and Kieran had grown up believing that Cornelia was his birth mother and Lara his auntie.

…

He had lost count on how many beers he had consumed after walking into the random scabby bar a bit further down the streets. He was however, fully convinced he would find the answer to this, seemingly impossible to decipher, new enigma he was faced with at the bottom of this particular pint currently mocking him with its abundance of amber-glittering liquid. He downed it within a few seconds and nodded towards the barmaid to bring him another.

Huh… funny. Looking up at his new-found provider of alcoholic beverages for the first time that afternoon he could have sworn he had met her before. It was something infuriatingly familiar with the way she held herself and the way her almond-shaped, chocolate coloured eyes, narrowed as she laid eyes on him, probably to determine if it was time to kick the drunk out before he came a tad bit too difficult to handle.

Gildarts shook his head a few times to clear himself of the feelings of Deja vu that had overtaken him and then laid eyes on the barmaid again. Noting that she had still not let him out of her sight, he could feel his ears burn slightly, like he had been caught doing something naughty.

He diverted his gaze down into the empty beer glass and glared menacingly at the rusty old chalice. As if it was the pint's fault that he could not for the life of him figure out how women functioned.

Nope, no world shaping revelations had proven to exist at the bottom of that pint. Useless thing…

Well then he just had to get another one, he resolutely concluded while looking up to catch the brown-haired young beauty's attention again, and was once more struck by remarkable resemblance to the exotic beauty who had shot him down before even giving him a chance earlier that day.

_Great, now I see her everywhere, how cliché... _He grumbled to himself while the barmaid, slightly reluctantly it seemed, poured him another beer.

This pint went down with ease, much like the five pints after that one. When the sun set behind the hillside, Gildarts, fuelled by the chemical bravery the many pints had offered, decided it was time to find out exactly why it felt like he looked at a younger copy of Cornelia as soon as he lifted his gaze above the rim of the glass. Said and done. He stood up, granted not in the most stable of stands, but up he got, and he was if anything, determined. Too bad his cognitive abilities where slightly under the table at the moment:

"Why do you look exactly like the mosht beautiful woman I've ever meet?"

Understandably, the young brunette simply ignored his random question and continued serving the person next to Gildarts instead.

The young mage did not let that stop him though. Mentally doing his best to pull himself together and produce something that at least resembled a sensible sentence he tried again:

"I'm in love with a woman. Her name ish Cornelia and you look exshactly like her. Why?" Better, Gildarts decided, not perfect, but much better than his first try, and the effect that sentence had on the young woman were much more to his liking.

"You know Cornelia?" The brunette asked while staring at him with judging eyes. "How do you know her?"

That stumped Gildarts for a second while his dulled mind tried to produce an acceptable answer. He was not particularly inclined to go into detail about his their first meeting, the pig fiasco. It was embarrassing for god's sake. But he still had to come up with something to get her to loosen her tongue, and that had to be quickly, judging from her narrowing eyes.

"Eh, yeah, we have met, and I would like to meet her again, but she shot me down." He sulked.

"I see." The brunette answered and went quiet for a few seconds before continuing, "I'll tell you what, if you come by our place tomorrow, _sober_, I'll see what I can do."

"Your place? You live together… you're sisters aren't you? I knew I couldn't have imagined the resemblance!" Gildarts triumphed, extremely joyful and satisfied over this new, unexpected development.

The brunette just rolled her eyes and nodded slightly. "Yes we are. Now go and sleep it off and I'll see you tomorrow."

And Gildarts agreed. However, in a rare moment of equal parts clarity and confusion Gildarts found something odd with their conversation and although he was well aware he was pushing his luck he just had to ask.

"Just one more thing, why are you helping me?"

"I have my reasons. Now go, before I change my mind."

And he left.


End file.
